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Dr. Beverly Wright, a professor of Sociology, is a scholar and advocate of environmental justice and founder and Executive Director of the Deep South Central for Environmental Justice (DSCEJ) in New Orleans. Her professional experience encompasses academic research, counseling and administrative work at local and national levels, and she is an author and co-author of numerous articles and books that focus on racial and environmental justice.

Biography

Dr. Beverly Wright completed her undergraduate education at Grambling State University in Grambling, Louisiana, where she obtained her Bachelor of Arts in Sociology and minored in Psychology in 1969. In 1971, she received her MA in Sociology from the State University of New York at Buffalo, in Buffalo, New York, where she also continued on to get her Ph.D. in Sociology. She completed her Ph.D. with specialized focus on environmental sociology, social psychology, sociology of women, and urban sociology.

On February 11, 1994, Dr. Wright was called to the White House as a witness to the signing of the Executive Order on Environmental Justice for the input she provided into President Clinton's Environmental Justice Transition paper. In the same year, she became a member of the National Environmental Justice Advisory Council (NEJAC), a federal advisory committee to the EPA established September 30, 1993. Beverly Wright has also served as a co-chair of the Environmental Justice Climate Change Initiative and was a member of the Commission Delegation to the U.N. Conference on Climate Change (COP 15 and 16 in 2009 and 2010).

Dr. Beverly Wright founded the Deep South Central for Environmental Justice in 1992 through her collaboration with community environmental groups and historically black academic institutions in the southern region such as Xavier University and Dillard University in New Orleans, Louisiana. The center is now an independent non-profit entity that continues to work with historically black colleges and universities in Louisiana and across the United States. The DSCEJ addresses issues of environmental and health inequity communities of color face in the Lower Mississippi River Industrial Corridor, an area also referred to as Cancer Alley, and the broader region of the Gulf Coast. These regions are disproportionately harmed by pollution and are vulnerable to the effects of climate change.

After Hurricane Katrina’s devastating effects in New Orleans in 2005, much of the work she did at the DSCEJ was focused on displaced African American residents. In addition to her advocacy for the safe return of displaced residents, her research at the center contributed to policy and educational outreach developments that addressed issues of health and environmental restoration and monitored the practice of fair and standardized restoration in minority communities. The center also provided training and job placement to displaced New Orleans residents. The DSCEJ continues to provide opportunities for communities, researchers, and policymakers to collaborate on projects that promote and work to ensure the rights of all people to live a life free from environmental harm that negatively impacts their biological, social, and economic welfare.

Currently, Dr. Wright serves as a co-author on The Equitable and Just National Climate Platform, which includes twelve environmental justice groups and six national environmental organizations. The platform advocates for a national climate agenda that has been signed by more than 280 environmental justices and environmental organizations across the country and advocates for the integration of equity and justice into climate policy.

Selected Publications

Books and Book Contributions

Bullard, Robert D., and Beverly Wright. The Wrong Complexion for Protection: How The Government Response Endangers African-American Communities. New York University Press, 2012. ISBN 9780814799932

Bullard, Robert D., and Beverly Wright. Race Place and Environmental Justice in the Aftermath of Katrina: Struggles to Reclaim, Rebuild and Revitalize New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2009. ISBN 9780813344249

Wright, Beverly. “Black New Orleans Before and After Hurricane Katrina,” pp. 173-198 in Bullard, Robert D.The Black Metropolis in the Twenty-First Century: Race, Power, and the Politics of Place. New York: Rowman & Littlefield, 2007. ISBN 9780742543294

Wright, Beverly. “Washed Away by Hurricane Katrina:  Rebuilding a ‘New’ New Orleans,” Pp. 189-214 in Bullard, Robert D. Growing Smarter: Achieving Livable Communities, Environmental Justice and Regional Equity. Cambridge:The MIT Press, 2007. ISBN 9780262026109

Wright, Beverly. “Living and Dying in Louisiana’s Cancer Alley,” Chapter 4 in Bullard, Robert D. The Quest For Environmental Justice: Human rights and the Politics of Pollution. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, 2005. ISBN 9781578051205

Wright, Beverly. “Just Sustainabilities: Development in an Unequal World,” Pp. 125-145 in Agyeman, J., Bullard, R.D., and Evans, B., Race, Politics, and Pollution: Environmental Justice in the Mississippi River Chemical Corridor, Earthscan Publication, MIT Press, 2003. ISBN 9781136562679, 9781849771771

Bullard, Robert D. and Beverly Wright. “Environmental Justice for All,” Pp. 448-462, xiii, 609, in Understanding Prejudice and Discrimination. Plous, Scott (Ed.), New York, NY, US: McGraw-Hill, 2003. ISBN 9780072554434

Monographs

Beverly Wright. Congressional Hearing Testimony, Subcommittee on Superfund and Environmental Health hearing entitled, “Oversight of the EPA’s Environmental Justice Programs." July 25, 2007.

Beverly Wright. “Liability and Environmental Laws” Publication: Congressional Testimony Publish date: November 8, 2005.

Bullard, Robert D. and  Beverly Wright. “The Color of Toxic Debris,” Pp.A9-A11 in The American Prospect – Demos, After Katrina: Redemption & Rebuilding, A report prepared for the Initiative for Regional and Community Transformation at Rutgers University and The McKnight Foundation (March 2009)

Bullard, R., P. Mohai, R. Saha, and Wright, B, “Toxic Wastes and Race at Twenty,” United Church of Christ, Cleveland, OH (March 2007).

Pastor, M., Bullard, R., Boyce, J., Fothergill, A., Morello-Frosch, R., Wright, B. Pp 20 & 26 “In the Wake of the Storm: Environment, Disaster, and Race after Katrina,” Russell Sage Foundation, NY (May 2006).

Wright, B., Sarpong, D., Babefemi, A., “The Socioeconomic Impact of Air Toxics on Disproportionately Exposed Communities,” Deep South Center for Environmental Justice, New Orleans, LA (2001).

Articles

Journals

Bullard, Robert D., and Beverly Wright. “Cleaning Up Toxic ‘Time Bombs’ Left Behind by Katrina.” [Special Issue on Hurricane Katrina:  Health Impacts in Louisiana, Joint Center for Political Studies]. FOCUS Magazine, Vol. 34, No.10, 2006.

Wright, Beverly. “Women’s Work.” Race, Poverty & the Environment, 10 (1), 2003, pp. 31-32.

Wright, Beverly. (1998). “Endangered Communities: The Struggle for Environmental Justice in Louisiana’s Chemical Corridor,” Journal of Public Management and Social Policy, 4(2), pp.181-191.

Wright, Beverly, Bullard, R.D., & Johnson, G.S. “Confronting Environmental Injustice,” [Special Issue]. Journal of Race, Gender, and Class, 5, 1997, pp. 65-79.

Bullard, R. D. and Beverly Wright. “Environmental Justice for All: Community Perspectives on Health and Research Needs,” Toxicology and Industrial Health, 9(5), 1993, pp. 821-841.

Wright, Beverly. “Cleaning Up the Environment: A Question of Equity for Minority Communities,” U.S. EPA Journal, 18, 36,1992.

Web-Based

Wright, Beverly.“Race, Place, and the Environment in the Aftermath of Katrina,” Anthropology of Work Review, Volume 32, Issue 1, July 2011, Pages: 4–8, Article first published online : 17 June 2011. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1548-1417.2011.01052.x/full

Wright, Beverly.and Robert D. Bullard, “Cleaning Up Toxic ‘Time Bombs’ Left Behind by Katrina,” FOCUS Magazine Special Issue on Hurricane Katrina:  Health Impacts in Louisiana, Joint Center for Political Studies, Vol. 34, No. 10 (January/February 2006), http://www.jointcenter.org/publications1/focus/FocusDetail.php?recordID=542.

Wright, Beverly and Robert D. Bullard, “The Real Looting: Katrina Exposes a Legacy of Discrimination and Opens the Door for 'Disaster Capitalism',” SeeingBlack.com, October 11, 2005, http://www.seeingblack.com/2005/x101105/411_oct05.shtml.

Beverly Wright and Robert D. Bullard, “Legacy of Unfairness:  Why Some Americans Get Left Behind,” September 29, 2005, http://www.ejrc.cau.edu/Exec%20Summary%20Legacy.html.

Wright, Beverly. “Katrina Reveals Environmental Racism's Deadly Force,” New America Media, Commentary, September 21, 2005, http://news.ncmonline.com/news/view_article.html?article_id=74fb2e18f6e1c829ae73181353442a61